#action doom

Story:

So this is a prequel to Action DOOM 1. Not sure how that’s relevant. You some Sin City character who is constantly talking to himself while looking for his kidnap daughter and I tuned the story out very quickly. I did not like writing and it just went on and on. If Max Payne is like this, I think I stay from that story cause I might just lose my patience for the plot very quickly. So lets move along.

Gameplay:

Action DOOM 1 gameplay is suppose to be based on Contra from what I heard and AD 2 decides to go along the lines of Streets Of Rage. So this game is mainly melee combat. So how those it play. Not great to be honest. Punching might seem like a good idea at first but enemies can swarm or corner you if you don’t have enough room and the only way to upgrade it is locked behind a bad ending. As in it’s exclusive level that locks you to a bad ending. So punching quickly becomes a horrible last result.

But you’re don’t only have your fists. You also find a gun in the starting room which can one-hit-kill most enemies and can finish off tougher enemies or bosses in two to three shots. But ammo is rare so it’s to save those. There are also several items scattered you can use as weapons like bottles, bats, wooden planks, etc, to add a bit more damage but it feels like using the fists at times. Aside from the gun, the only weapons I enjoyed using were a hammer I found in the elevator level which is slow but has some weight to it and the fire extinguisher as it was like a flame thrower that freeze you’re enemies. The switch blade was also handy but that doesn’t last long until it breaks.

Level themselves are okay for the most part. There is the elevator but that just takes you to a series of combat arena’s like an office or a casino instead of just fighting in an elevator. There was a level on a bridge which was fine until I need to jump up a crane and found out the game didn’t bind a jump button. But the worst level has got to be the abandoned farm for not only being a dark maze with no clear end goal, but for having a boss that’s locked behind a door that can only be destroyed with a chainsaw. A chainsaw that can only be found in a secret in the previous level. So screw that level. Screw that sniper in the previous level. Screw locking me out of an upgrade for my fists. And screw the lackluster combat.

Presentation:

If there’s one thing game is good at, it’s it’s presentation. There are cutscenes with voice acting which is clearly based on Sin City. But I didn’t enjoy the story and I don’t care about Sin City, but that’s just taste. I did like the sprite work, though I was actually uncomfortable when an enemy randomly turned into a pile of gibs. Music is good and the levels are bright and colorful like the retro games this one is taking influence from.

Verdict:

One of the more niche games I review. If you like Sin City, Beat-em ups and similar works, you’ll love this. For everyone else, I think Hedon might have a more satisfying First-Person combat mode.